I find the idea of “name reveals” ridiculously cute. We’re all sharing that information eventually. And unlike a baby’s gender which is almost always determined by chance, a baby’s name is something most parents spend a great deal of time choosing.

So why not pick a fun and memorable way to share your baby’s name with your family and friends? And with social media, using a photograph is a unique way to let everyone know the name you chose.

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41 Responses to New photo trend: The “name reveal” (pics!)

Amysays:

June 20, 2012 at 8:07 am

We did something similar when we told my family my middle daughter’s name. We made it a game. I painted her letters for her room, and then my husband bought paper lunch bags. We scrambled the name and put 2-3 letters in each bag. Then on Mother’s Day (I think – may have been my mom’s birthday), we gave a bag to my mom, my aunt, my grandma and my dad. They had to put it together like a puzzle. It was really funny, and everyone loved the idea.

Brookesays:

June 20, 2012 at 8:42 am

We revealed both girls names on the day of their birth. I had a hat embroidered with the name and dh slipped it to the nurse to put on after the bath. It seemed like forever until they noticed but I loved keeping it a secret so long. I don’t like when family judges the name WE choose. And once baby is pinned to it, there’s little they can say.

brittsays:

June 20, 2012 at 8:43 am

Oh, give me a break. You don’t have to make a big ta-da about every little aspect of your pregnancy.

cute ideas! I like the idea of having it written on candy like M&Ms but maybe I just want another excuse to eat chocolate!

Cyrenasays:

June 20, 2012 at 10:30 am

when you’ve lost a child and/or have been trying to conceive for a long time, you will want to make “a big ta-da” about everything. i think this is a really cute idea, although i probably won’t announce a name until our baby is born.

ASsays:

June 21, 2012 at 7:33 am

Had a miscarriage and took a while to conceive and even I think some of these things go over the top. We did have a quiet little ‘gender reveal’ party, where we announced to our closest friends the gender of the baby (also took a picture – unprofessionally with a sign to send to the grandparents). But I think a lot of these go really too far, from a formal pregnancy announcement complete with ultrasound pictures to gender reveal party, to name announcements, to birthing photos, to birth announcements – all professionally photographed. To each their own, but at some point it becomes less about celebrating the baby and more attention grabbing for the parents. I have celebrated with gusto each little week, each little milestone and made my own memories with these but haven’t found the need to go all out on each step.

CARRIE Hsays:

June 21, 2012 at 9:47 am

I would have done something fun like this if I had thought about it. What a fun memento to have in a baby book. We were not shy about telling our babies names as soon as we knew what we were having. Nobody in our family really liked either name. There were monetary offers made for us to change the name of our 2nd. We didn’t care on bit what anyone else thought. We made them so we were going to name them what we wanted. Now we always get compliments on their names.

Jennifersays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:08 pm

Britt, you seem upset.

c.c.says:

June 21, 2012 at 1:08 pm

i think the reveal whereby you cross out the other names you considered is asking for double trouble. now you get judgment on the names you did AND didn’t choose! but we were those people who kept the name 100% secret until the baby was born.

rachelsays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:11 pm

cute ideas ….but who has the time and extra cash to do all this?!

Mirandasays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:14 pm

Britt your comment makes me wonder if you even have children because every aspect is exciting & something you want to show off. Whether your baby was planned or not. Personally I think it’s adorable. Wish we had done it with my little five month old.

Jesi Blanksays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:19 pm

I took a “family” photo of shoes, my husband’s, mine, our daughter’s and a pair for our son (expected to arrive 9/2012) and listed all our names and therefore announcing the name for our son!! All my friends loved it!!

Ashleysays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:38 pm

this is a cute idea. I don’t think it’s wrong to be extra excited to announce certain parts of your pregnancy. As parents we want to celebrate our children and every milestone they achieve. Some choose to do it with personal photos while others like the professional look to it. I say if that’s what you want to do and can afford it then go for it.I didn’t have the money to do all this with my son but I did take weekly pictures and had a friend of mine take some maternity pictures for me. I think I waited until we found out the gender then posted a picture of the ultrasound and his name but waited to post his full name until birth. With my miscarriage we still named the baby but we didn’t make a huge deal of it just told people what the name was because it wasn’t really a celebration but more of a way to honor our baby. With our next one though I might do something like this it’s a cute idea and great for any baby scrapbook.

angiesays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Why comment if you’re so negative? Find something or someone else to grip about.
If a life a baby doesn’t get u excited – what planet did u come from?

These fun new ideas are great ways to celebrate the birth of babies. wonderful scrapbook and pix for the family for years to come. Cheap inexpensive ways anyone can do this at home doesn’t have to be done professionally!!

Kelsays:

June 21, 2012 at 1:48 pm

I guess I am old-fashioned. I didn’t do this at all and had no desire to do it. We didn’t find out what we were having, and we didn’t take any professional pregnancy pictures either. Close family got a phone call with gender and name when our LO was born. Everyone else received a text with picture and name.

Amelia'sMomsays:

June 21, 2012 at 2:02 pm

I am getting to the point where I can’t read these blogs and comments anymore. How can something as harmless as this still turn into a judge fest?

jbsays:

June 21, 2012 at 2:05 pm

Understandably so, babies are exciting, but some things do not need a “party” or a “trend”. What happened to good ole’ fashioned personal relationships in which people tell the important people in their lives in person about being pregnant,etc.? Oh, right, “social networking” and the need for constant one-up-manship! I really get tired of seeing endless posts on the state of one’s morning sickness or pictures of the inside of your uterus. OK, you are pregnant. Congratulations! It is awesome, and being a mom is a wonderful thing and I treasure it most in my life (true story). However, I would appreciate if you would please keep your uterus and the contents of your stomach to yourself, thankyouverymuch. And while we are at it, please don’t invite me to your “reveals”. It makes people feel like they need to come bearing gifts. And haven’t I already been invited to your personal baby shower AND work baby shower? I’d prefer a (gasp)phone call if you are my real-life friend – you know, from that thing you play Words with Friends on? Otherwise, I can just read about it on your Facebook page, where you post all of the other dribble about your seemingly boring life.

Oh and ladies, if you have read this far, this is not, I repeat, NOT directed at you personally or your comments on this article. It is more so directed to some of the stupid nonsense I see on a regular basis in my own life.

These pics are kind of cute, just not my personal cup of tea!

Maybe it’s time to clean out the FB friends

sarasays:

June 21, 2012 at 2:12 pm

We were still deciding the baby name on d-day. So when each of our girls were born we took a picture and texted the info saying “Welcome (baby name)! Stats:” It was fun and quick. The only one that really surprised family was the name we added on D-day to our 1st daughter’s name- it was my mother’s mother’s name Betty who had passed away 4 years before.

jbsays:

June 21, 2012 at 2:20 pm

@Amelia’sMom – it’s a public forum where people are allowed to express their 1st amendment rights. you can always choose to not read. or not to post.

Jenelle W.says:

June 21, 2012 at 2:33 pm

I love this idea! I wish we had done something similar with my first born. We’re pregnant with #2 and I think we’ll do something like this. But, we’re private people and won’t announce the name until his birth – I think it would be something great for him to look back on in his baby book. Just like the belly pictures I have of my first pregnancy. Boy #1 LOVES to look at those and talk about when he was in Momma’s belly. For us, it’s private but it’s okay with me if others share – I can choose not to listen.

jennasays:

June 21, 2012 at 2:58 pm

meh. Honestly people, this is all really only exciting to the parents and possibly grandparents. Even the grandparents play along with all this self congratulatory nonsense because, let’s face it, they’ve done it already. It’s fine to celebrate, but keep in mind that none of this is nearly as interesting and amazing to the rest of the world as it is to you. I also understand the pain of miscarriage, but your pregnancy is not a miracle. And before a bunch of snarky women try to claim I must not be a mom b/c I’m not enamored with the idea of celebrating what a unique little snowflake my daughter is — yes I’m a mom and I love my kid just as much as you do. I just think all of this is just soooo self obsessed.

Amelia'sMomsays:

June 21, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Jb- I would love to read people’s opinion’s, what I see more ans more of are judgements against others. “This isn’t my thing” vs “I can’t believe people do this”.

Suzannesays:

June 21, 2012 at 3:40 pm

I think this stuff is getting popular b/c of sites like pinterest and everyone stealing everyone else’s ideas Well we revealed I was pregnant to our close family by printing a “save the date” card… it had a photo of us from the wedding and said save the date with the due date of the baby. They loved it, and it really surprised them.

As far as announcing to the world at large, I waited until we knew what we were having and then posted a countdown “lilypad” to Facebook and emailed to my coworkers and other people who did not know yet. Definitely a shocker for most of them

I probably would never do most of the things in these pics b/c the last thing I want is a pic of my belly, even if it’s covered.

TFsays:

June 21, 2012 at 4:23 pm

I don’t know about anyone else but my pregnancy was def a miracle! I had twins & knew it would be my only pregnancy so we did the professional photo thing. Plus my friend is a photographer & I want to support her! This is a really cute idea if it’s your thing. We didn’t reveal the names to anyone until they were born. We didn’t want to hear criticism about our choices & actually had a family member quit talking to us for a while because they couldn’t name our twins (we have lots of badness in our families.) Plus we wanted the option to change our minds if the babies weren’t born ” looking like” the name we picked. (Happened every time to my parents!) I really liked the previous poser’s idea about slipping the hat on.

Angelicasays:

June 21, 2012 at 11:51 pm

On the day we found out the gender, we announced both since we had the name ready. We’re total nerds, so I grabbed a dungeons an dragons character sheet and write in DS’s stats from the ultrasound as well as his name and then sprinkled blue dice across the sheet and took a pic. Then I posted on FB to all our nerd friends. The sheet is going in the baby book with the ultrasound, and the dice will be his first set when he needs them.

Jhillsays:

June 22, 2012 at 4:02 am

Grow up, people. Just like you hasn’t the right to your opinion, others have the right to their ideas of “cute” and “acceptable” when it comes to sharing their information. It is their information after all! It’s awesome that you have an opinion on the topic but what good go you think it does to share it? Does it really hurt you in any way for someone you don’t know to share the name of their child? Or to take pictures if their pregnant bellies? Seems to me you are the ones with nothing better to do. And if it is your own friend who is doing these “terrible” things to you, ask them not to include you in their happiness. Or stop being their friend if you can’t accept their personality. Everyone is different and unique. God help us if we were all the same…HOW BORING!

Ceciliasays:

June 22, 2012 at 6:51 am

DH and I did not have an easy time TTC at all….and I think all of these “name reveal” and “gender reveal” things are just too much for me personally. Well for DH too…we kind of agreed on this. I’d be happy to go to someone else’s party…I just wouldn’t have one myself. We were very cautious and didn’t tell a majority of people I was pregnant until I was well past the first trimester. Honestly we were scared for a long time that I would loose the baby. And I think a lot of people who have this fear because of medical problems or past miscarriages and losses feel this way about not wanting to have “gender reveal” parties and “name reveal” parties. Don’t get me wrong, we were happy I was pregnant..but we were also kind of scared. A few people asked me “Are you going to do the blue cake/pink cake gender reveal party? Or have the ultrasound tech write on a card what the gender is and then fold it?” No, we just like it straight up. And really the fears we had about loosing the baby aside, that’s kind of the way we are. We’ll tell you we’re having a boy or a girl when we’re ready, and you’ll hear about a name when we chose one. No guessing, no parties about it, no secrets. That’s just the way some people are…it doesn’t mean they’re “negative” or not excited about their pregnancy. It is what it is. Different strokes for different folks.

Alisonsays:

June 22, 2012 at 7:47 am

To each his or her own – no need to judge individual replies….there’s enough negativity in the world already….

Sarahsays:

June 22, 2012 at 11:31 am

I agree with jb and a few others. Some people go way over board with sharing. For me, pregnancy was very personal and I wanted the surprise of gender for myself. I had a girls name chosen for years in advance, but I love scrap booking and seeing some of these pics makes me wish I had used some ideas. I have very few preggie pics and I regret that now. I wouldn’t’ve shared them all but they’d be nice to have now that it’s a distant memory.

James'Momsays:

June 22, 2012 at 1:14 pm

It is a little sad that some people get so upset about this. I would never pay for someone to take these photos because my hubby and I are pretty artistic and we don’t have a lot of extra cash laying around but I LOVE these ideas for my next pregnancy! I puff painted a onsie that said “Coming soon…” and then the due date on the back and we went to the homes of our family and showed them along with a framed pic of the ultrasound and then for others far away we took a picture and texted it… then uploaded it to FB… this was of course the day we went to a Dr. and for the first time saw an ultrasound and heard the heartbeat after thinking I had miscarried. It absolutely called for some celebration. Also, every time one of my sisters finds out the gender of a new child I throw them a gender reveal party to celebrate yet another member of our already huge family. Every conception is a miracle and every child a gift, I love to celebrate such special times with my whole family. Cannot wait to do maybe a hello my name is sticker on my belly next time! That would be like a gender reveal/baby naming as we don’t keep secrets very long!
And congrats to all of the expectant mothers commenting and reading!

Shannonsays:

June 22, 2012 at 1:22 pm

I agree with PP’s who say that not everything needs to be announced in a big way. Honestly, it’a a name.

And I did go through years of infertility so I understand excitement- but this seems more like pandering for attention and/or one-upmanship.

Eh, not my thing. I have two kids I adore and have had several miscarriages…so whether or not I have had kids, or lost babies has nothing to do with it. I just personally had no desire for every moment of my pregnancy to be a big attention getting event. I was excited about my babies, but did not feel a need to “show off” (using a pp’s words) the gender, the name, etc. Especially during pregnancy. I think it is more fun to share these things when the baby arrives and the time to celebrate has arrived.

WarcraftChicksays:

June 23, 2012 at 8:19 am

@Angelica: OMG that’s BRILLIANT! Too bad my DnD group broke up before hubby and I decided to TTC, and it wouldn’t work for the rest of our friends and family, lol. Good idea about the dice, though. I’ll have to go hunting for a good set. Perhaps something in a metallic green…

We have our names all set and ready, and no one else knows them except for us, not even the kiddo. (She’s in a continuous ‘I have a big mouth’ stage, lol.) It’s not really that we’re dodging criticism, (well, sort of…) it’s just that the names are shiny and new, and should remain as such when we finally have our littlest booger. That, and knowing my MIL, she’ll come up with ‘better’ name suggestions every time we see her, or lecture us on how we should name him/her after passed family members, which hubby is against. Telling her that we have our names already set, that they’re not changing, and no one will know until the birth certificate is filled out, has so far curbed any talk of baby names. *crosses fingers*

But seriously though, neither of us have given much thought to how we’ll reveal gender/name. This kid’s been in the making for a while now, so I’m sure that whatever we decide to do, it’ll be…unique, lol. Hubby comes from a long line of practical jokers, so perhaps a family-history making one is in the works!

Heathersays:

June 23, 2012 at 10:12 am

I DO like the idea!!! I had thought of doing the name tag idea with my second, just never got around to it… all the pics are SUPER cute and it makes me truly happy to see people expressing their excitement with their pregnancies! I also think if you wish to be more private about things, that is a-ok

Aurorasays:

June 23, 2012 at 1:01 pm

I would have loved to have done this, but we didn’t have the name picked out until he was thirty days old! (the maximum amount of time allowed in my area) Actually, I had the name picked out very early on, but it took a lot of convincing for my husband to agree to use the name, but I let him pick the two middle names, and he gave him his last name.

Darasays:

June 24, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Cute! Although I wouldn’t enlist a professional photographer for it. I have a camera and a whiteboard and Photoshop and can do it myself. Also, I wouldn’t have a party for it but that’s just me.

Whenever we have a second, I may do a simple version of this. We’ll see.

Megssays:

June 25, 2012 at 7:37 pm

I think some of these are really cute, it’s just that it’s all a bit contrived for my taste. Especially the one with the crossed out names (I like some of the names they DIDN’T choose more than the ones they did!)

I had a basic pregnancy journal that I wrote in, and my husband took photos of my belly each week with his iphone. Next baby, I wouldn’t mind getting some professional pics of the family, but that’s about it.

It’s like the mums who create weekly scrapbook pages of their lives – I love scrapbooking, but it just seems a bit much to turn every single week of your life into a celebration!! Not trying to be negative, I understand it works for some people, it’s just not my bag

Angelicasays:

June 25, 2012 at 7:39 pm

@WarcraftChick We should be friends. If you had friends and family that played with you, you could create a character with your child’s name? Maybe a gnome….

LKsays:

June 29, 2012 at 9:52 am

To each his or her own is what I say, so those of you that want to reveal, go for it, those that don’t, don’t reveal. Simple as that.

My only problem with the whole thing is that I do think that many parents think that it is “cute” and that their friends and family do “enjoy” it. Speaking from experience, some of the reveals I have been privy too have been stupid. So then I have to sit there and lie and say, “Oh, that’s so cute.” “Oh, what a creative way to tell us.” You get the picture.

My husband and I did the whole not telling anybody anything. We barely made a big deal of being pregnant. I did not tell people that I was even pregnant with #1 until she was pretty far down the pipeline. With #2 we waited a long time too. Obviously based on this you can assume that we did not share names, gender, etc. either.

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